"A mesmerizing account of the well-known story of Matsyagandha
... and her transformation from
fisherman’s daughter to Satyavati, Santanu’s royal consort and the
Mother/Progenitor of the Kuru clan." - Hindustan Times

"Themes of fate, morality and power overlay a subtle and essential feminism to make this lyrical book a must-read. If this is Madhavan’s first book in the Girls from the Mahabharata series, there is much to look forward to in the months to come." - Open Magazine

"A gleeful dollop of Blytonian magic ... Reddy Madhavan is also able to tackle some fairly sensitive subjects such as identity, the love of and karmic ties with parents, adoption, the first sexual encounter, loneliness, and my favourite, feminist rage." - Scroll

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15 July 2005

But you can say baby, baby can I hold you tonight? Baby if I told you the right words, at the right time, you'd be mine

Just returned from night at Hookah with Samar, Priya's sweet ex-boyfriend and a good buddy of mine. We spent most of the evening leching at cute DJ (me) and drinking Budweiser (him) and talking about people we knew and how our love lives were just too boring for comfort. I also got my nails done, as in there was a nail art guy and so now two of my fingers have little red and blue flowers on them. They look quite bizarre, but two LITs later, I'm okay with them.

I was reading this article in Vogue the other day {no, I don't normally read Vogue, though I'd like to, it sounds so cool, doesn't it, the whole hey-so-in-this-month's-Vogue? I feel like one of those chickies with very thin eyebrows and Manolo Blahniks and little Hermes bags. I feel like one of those chickies who knows how to pronounce all those names. (this Vogue and a bunch of other magazines like Vanity Fair and Tatler, were actually a present from a friend of my mom's, the kind of person who actually buys all these sweet smelling foreign magazines from the Khan Market guy, but she's going to the US, the home of sweet smelling magazines so she gave them all to me. Yay)} Anyway so this article was by this woman who was talking about the first dress she ever bought and all the memories associated with that and I was thinking hmmm... what memories do I have with clothes? All that came to mind were my beloved 559 Levis which I practically lived in at that time, but then I always live in my jeans. Clothes are important to me, just not super important I guess.

There was also a blue FabIndia kurta that I bought for my first day at college which I still love. Now it's been washed so often the cotton is paper thin and clings delicately to my body every time I put it on. It's dark blue with a bold abstract blockprint in white all over it. There was the perfect tube skirt I bought in class 7 or 8, in black--a tiny little thing made of what seemed like entirely cotton and elastic. I lost that when I most wanted it, ie, when I was all grown up, but I managed to find a short back skirt at Benetton on sale about a year or two ago. It wasn't marked down very heavily but I still loved it so much that I bought it. And it was a sound investment, because I wear that skirt about once or twice a year and still look fabulous!

And then there are sadder memories, like the black and white striped Cotton World t-shirt that was the first thing in my cupboard I could find as I rushed for Puja's cremation. It's been washed since then, and once, once I used to love it and wear it all the time, but now it still looks and smells like death and a funny feeling in my stomach.

The first sari I ever owned is up there on my memory list too--a creation in lavender and silver, the lavender fading to icy white towards the inside. Bought for my cousin's wedding in the middle of my pre-board exams when I flew to Hyderbad for the weekend to rapidly partake of the festivities. And the dress I bought at GK once with Devyani, we were still in school and were window shopping idly when we saw it in one of the cheaper stores--blue, made of sweatshirt type material with red and white spaghetti straps, one of those sporty things you saw skinny models wearing. And I loved it and I tried it on and it seemed made for me, even Devyani agreed and she lent me the money I needed. I wore it for one of the popular boy's parties and it made me feel so much more like one of them thatI never wanted to take it off.

I could probably go on and on, but I'll stop. It is quite late and some of us have pages to bring out tomorrow. Does everyone have clothes memories I wonder, or is it just a girl thing?

By the way, that picture was taken at a traffic light. I haven't got it quite right I know, I don't know why, because I took at least seven shots of this old man trying to cross a busy intersection, but I like this picture. I like the way he's waiting patiently, his shopping at his side.

26 comments:

The clothes that make me feel all warm and fuzzy inside are mostly things I sleep in that I've been sleeping in for years and years... There's nothing quite like slipping into a freshly laundered slightly "holey" nightshirt... it just reminds me of my Mom... its not like she ever washed the clothes herself but she was at the helm, supervising it all... making sure I had freshly laundered sheets and towels and nightshirts... it sucks doing it all for yourself!

The trick with that photography is to stabilize your hand, make sure you click when the primary subject isnt moving. Only the background is. So that way, you get a whole effect of movement, and in the middle of it all stillness. Nice shot though... imagine how much cooler it would have been if it was at night ? All the headlights would have been streaking around and all that ! Neatooo !!!

hey eM..gotta ask you this for sure. do you select your song titles by the content of the post or are they some detached lyric that acts as a prelude to the post???do tell.Also,great post. clothes and magazines are the best things to happen to women.

Nah, clothes are not just a girl thing, guys too have their own little idiosyncrasies when it comes to them, though most of it is related to superstition. Good clothes and I are normally seen running in opposite directions, I just buy what I like in bulk, pick a couple of favourites from them and wear them out till it becomes really unwearable, though I have also kept a new shirt or two in its packing forever because someone I like gifted it to me. That still does not prevent me from being the most painful holier-than-thou expert on what others wear.

Trust me on this, the chaos in a newspaper office is nothing compared to the one in a telly shack. I even kind of miss the old craziness.

hi eM! Like Vignesh said, both of u have to be still and not change your mind while taking the pic! So if one of you is moving then there will be a blur... unless of course you have of those really cool SLRs with really fast shutter speeds that make F1 cars look stationary! So there you go, be still and ask your subject to do the same!! Or else get that SLR!! :-)

Good pic idea though!! If I was the sensitive types, it would evoke something inside!! ;-)

penny lane: I could probably do a whole post just on nightclothes and how evocative they are :)

vignesh: Evidentally I'll never make a surgeon! I have very unstable hands :) And duh, the skirt was lost while we were shifting house :)

forgetful hearer: Sometimes I'm listening to a song and I think how much it sums up my life at the moment so I use some lyrics as the head, other times I finish writing the post and I think ooh, this lyric would make a great headline and so I use that. In the case of this post, I happened to be singing this song to myself so I used it :)

The only Fabindia stuff I have is this khadi type Nehru jacket. Originally from the GK Fabindia, it is, for some inexplicable reason, lying in the bottom drawer in my office. Drunken memories of some fancy desi party aside, i can't quite recall how it came *here*

Not much of a clothes horse myself, but I will recount a bizzare shopping experience. I was in a place called Manaus deep in the Amazon, doing all sorts of touristy things, when I stumbled upon a curio store selling all sorts of stuff from alligator hide keychains to stuffed piranha in a locket. Suddenly I see a brazilian tribal native, sporting what can probably be once called as a black baseball cap with the initials ''RXTR'' on it. It was in tatters, but none the worse for wear. Completely taken aback (RXTR happens to be the name I go by in cyberspace and I have a fondness for those initials !), I approached him and asked/ gesticulated if he would consider selling it. He looked at me, shrugged and let loose a barrage of dialogues, which to me, signalled assent and handed me his cap. I paid all of 2 USD for it, donned the cap and walked away feeling very proud and happy. All this while, the store owner had a very smug expression on his face. It was, as if he disapproved of this expolitation. The next day I went back to the shop wearing the cap and the store owner sized me up and down, with the same smug expression on his face. I could not resist it anymore and very cheekily asked him, ''how do I look'' ? He smiled at me and asked me to come near. He then asked me whether I understood what the native had said when he sold me the cap. I said no and asked him what did he say ? He looked at me and said '' The cap belonged to a white man, who fell into the Amazon while canoeing and was eaten alive by the crocs''. A shiver went up my spine and I immediately took my cap off and walked away. The cap is still with me but I can't seemt to shake the feeling of a pair of crocodile jaws closing down on me, everytime I wear it !!

Hey !! I never said it was bad !! I was just telling you what would have made it ultre cool !!! I am as appreciative of your amateur photography skillzzzz as the next person, alright !!! Really, I am !!

I have sort of been pretty partial to Fab and have visited in all the places. Thought that the Delhi one was quite the best! :) My mom thinks that they ought to be sued for ripping off consumers with their prices...

Ohh Fuck…this is like opening old wounds…for those who mostly wear Jeans (read 99.95 pct) they know that you can hunt for hundreds but its still great luck to find that one perfect piece that’s just made for you - even with factory productions and big brands. Real bad luck twice – had a Levis and a Wrangler once, am still searching for something to even remotely match them even after a few years. Was at a friend’s place and she had bought some denims from a sale and I was gifted one after dinner so I tried it and wore it while going back home with my Levis’s in a huge plastic bag that was hanging from the handle of my mobike, I kept looking at it at every turn to see it was fine and yes it was. The bike stopped near Chanakya, some problem, and late at night I had to drag it which I was doing well and I could smell something. Till I realized that the smell was following me it was late. The bag was too long and was touching the hot silencer and the jeans had caught fire…I still get animated… The Wrangler was a work of art…damn that was very tragic (also on the bike, prime reason I now use the four-wheeler)…but later …am rushing out for a drink now…thought of hitting a bar yesterday after a boring day thinking I might catch you, considering that you are somewhere everyday… Then decided against it… you might be the queen - but then who wants to be the subject.

To me the pic looks like it says "See how fast life goes by when you just stand and watch?"

Yes, I have memories of clothes too. Not of the ones I bought, but of those select few that I sewed myself. A navy blue skirt, a white-with-floral-pattern salwar-kameez and an apron I fashioned out of an old, "like-new" skirt!